Rocket® ACUCOBOL-GT®

The Rocket ACUCOBOL-GT Extension for Visual Studio Code provides support for creating, editing, compiling, and debugging ACUCOBOL-GT code in Visual Studio Code.

The extension supports existing ACUCOBOL-GT (extend®) AcuBench® projects and new AcuBench projects created using the extension.

Read the full documentation for Rocket ACUCOBOL-GT here.

Features include:

• Editing AcuBench Projects - supports the creation and editing of Rocket AcuBench projects (including those created using the Rocket AcuBench desktop product), programs, and screens.
• Editing AcuBench Screens - supports the editing of screen content - adding, modifying, and removing controls.
• Editing support for COBOL code - supports the editing and navigation of ACUCOBOL-GT code.
• Building AcuBench Projects - supports the building of projects and programs.
• Debugging AcuBench Projects - supports run-time debugging of the generated code.

See Scope of the Support in this Version for details on features that are not yet implemented.

Prerequisites

• Visual Studio Code version 1.92 or later is required.
• Rocket extend version 11.0 or later installed on the same machine is required to use the compile and debug features.
• Rocket extend version 11.0 or later is also required to run the Screen Designer.

Help with this Extension

Visit the Community Forum for help with the extension and to discuss this product with other users and Rocket Software product specialists. For help with functionality in the extension that relies on your licensed Rocket extend product, you can also contact Rocket Software Customer Care.

Verifying the Digital Signature

The .vsix package for this extension can be verified using a hosted digital signature. For more details, see Verifying the Digital Signature of a Rocket Extension for Visual Studio Code.

New Features

What's new in version 1.6.0

• Program file extension settings - Configure valid file extensions for program source files so they are recognized as ACU COBOL language files for editing, compilation and execution.

• References Code Lens setting - Toggle code lens references in the editor on and off.

• Integrated Terminal - Provide an ACUCOBOL-GT development environment in the Visual Studio Code integrated terminal.

For features that were added in earlier versions, check the Changelog of this extension.

Project Support

The Project View enables you to:

• Create a project
• Rename a project
• Remove a project
• Create a program
• Add an existing program
• Rename a program
• Remove a program
• Edit a program's Event Paragraph
• Edit a program's Working Storage
• Invoke Generate, Build, Compile, Debug, and Run commands

The Project View also supports the following features to help you edit application screens:

• Create a screen
• Delete a screen
• Rename a screen
• Open a screen for editing
• Assign a screen as the main screen of a program

Screen Design Support

The Screen Designer provides the following functionality to enable graphic screen design and modification:

• Create a control
• Cut, copy, paste, or delete one or more controls
• Move and resize controls
• Modify screen and control properties

COBOL Editing Support

The Visual Studio Code editor supports the following features to help you write COBOL code:

• Syntax highlighting
• Support for code snippets
• Highlighting compilation errors and reporting them in the PROBLEMS view
• Indenting code to align with COBOL rulers while preserving the left margin
• Commands for exploring your COBOL code - i.e. Peek, Go to Definition, Go to References
• Outline view and breadcrumb navigation
• Call hierarchy

Building Support

Visual Studio Code offers build tasks to compile code in an AcuBench project, as well as custom shell build tasks. The build tasks are available from the Terminal menu.

Debugging Support

This extension provides debugging functionality using the Rocket extend Debugger.

Scope of Support in this Version

This version of the Rocket ACUCOBOL-GT Extension has the following limitations:

• A licensed installation of Rocket extend (version 11.0 or later) must be present.
• The extension runs on Windows platforms only.
• Only run-time debugging is supported.
• The following are not supported:
  • Linkage Section editor
  • Dataset and files
  • Reports
  • Creating, viewing, and editing character-based screens
  • Remote compile
  • ActiveX controls

Read the Rocket Software License and Services Agreement here.